Press Releases

Professor Emeritus Carl Zytowski, a longtime member of the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music faculty, passed away on Veterans Day, Sunday, November 11, 2018 at the age of 97. Professor Zytowski was a veteran, having served in the United States Air Force from 1942-1945.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present its Fall Concert Series from Tuesday, November 27th to Friday, December 7th, with performances by the Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus, Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM), Wind Ensemble, Middle East Ensemble, Jazz Combos, Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players, and Gospel Choir. Highlights include the Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus program featuring winter music from around the world and other songs inspired by nature; the Ensemble for Contemporary Music’s bold program of works by John Adams, Vincent Persichetti, and Tristan Murail; the UCSB Jazz Combos’ performance at SOhO Restaurant and Music Club in downtown Santa Barbara; and the first performance of the UCSB Middle East Ensemble’s 30th year.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present “Montage” on Sunday, November 11, 2018 at 7 pm at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Santa Barbara. Curated by UCSB Professor of Flute Jill Felber, the department’s fifth annual showcase concert will feature back-to-back performances by outstanding faculty, students, and alumni from the UCSB Department of Music. Faculty artists include soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, tenor Benjamin Brecher, violinist Ertan Torgul, violist Jonathan Moerschel, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, and pianists John Ballerino, Natasha Kislenko, and Robert Koenig. Tabla player Shashank Aswathanarayana, members of Jennifer Kloetzel’s cello studio, and the UCSB Young Artists String Quartet will round out the roster of student performers. Additionally, UCSB alumni from the Department of Music’s Resident Ensemble, the Now Hear Ensemble, will present excerpts from a work by UCSB Composition alumnus Federico Llach.

UCSB Professor Steven Gross’ recital with American Double, originally scheduled for Sunday, October 14, 2018 at 3 pm at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West, will be postponed. The performance will be rescheduled at the earliest possible date (TBA). Current ticket holders will be notified and given a full refund.

The UCSB Department of Music will present UCSB Professor of Horn Steven Gross with American Double members violinist Philip Ficsor and pianist Constantine Finehouse in the West Coast premiere of William Bolcom’s Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano on Sunday, October 14, 2018 at 3 pm at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West. The recital will also include performances of Václav Nelhýbel’s Scherzo Concertante, an excerpt from Jiří Havlík’s Concerto for Horn, and selections from Bolcom’s Second Suite for Solo Violin.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present the third annual UCSB Summer Music Festival on Friday, August 17 and Saturday, August 18, 2018 on the UCSB campus. Sponsored by the UCSB Office of Summer Sessions, the festival will feature performances by the Grammy Award-nominated Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, violist and UCSB Music alumnus Jonathan Morgan, Gamelan Sinar Surya, Adelfos Ensemble, Mariachi Las Olas de Santa Barbara, UCSB Carillonist Margo Halsted, and UCSB Music graduate students. Other festival highlights include an Interactive Multimedia Exhibition presented by graduate students from the Media Arts and Technology program and the Department of Music, a Children’s Concert featuring various festival artists, and world premiere performances by the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet of works by UCSB graduate composers. The events will be presented free of charge at several venues across the UCSB campus including the Music Department’s Karl Geiringer Hall and Music Bowl, the Multicultural Center Theater, Storke Tower, the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts’ Digital Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Art, Design & Architecture Museum.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music welcomes acclaimed cellist Jennifer Kloetzel as Assistant Professor of Cello beginning Fall 2018. Ms. Kloetzel’s performance career spans over three decades and has included solo, chamber, and orchestral appearances throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. As a founding member of the Cypress String Quartet and an advocate for new music, Ms. Kloetzel has commissioned and premiered nearly 40 solo and chamber works by renowned composers such as Jennifer Higdon, Elena Ruehr, George Tsontakis, Kevin Puts, Philippe Hersant, and Daniel Asia. Having served as a Lecturer at UC Santa Barbara since Fall 2016, Ms. Kloetzel has performed on many Music Department concerts, including the department’s recent collaboration with CAMA for the organization’s Centennial Kickoff Celebration at Trinity Episcopal Church with fellow UCSB faculty members flutist Jill Felber and pianist Robert Koenig.

The UCSB Department of Music will present its Spring 2018 Concert Series from Sunday, May 27th to Friday, June 8th, with performances by the Wind Ensemble, Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM), Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus, Middle East Ensemble, Gamelan Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players, Jazz Ensemble, Music of India Ensemble, and Gospel Choir. Highlights include the UCSB Wind Ensemble’s 25th Anniversary Alumni Reunion Concert, the Jazz Ensemble featuring special guest Jeff Babko of the Jimmy Kimmel Live house band on piano/keyboards, and the UCSB Gamelan Ensemble featuring community gamelan ensemble Gamelan Sinar Surya and a Tarling ensemble.

The UCSB Percussion and Jazz Ensembles will present an evening of chamber music for percussion and jazz on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 7:30 pm in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. The Percussion Ensemble will perform music by seminal California percussion composer Henry Cowell (Pulse), David Hall (Escape Velocity), and an octet for mallet instruments by Blake Tyson (A Ceiling Full of Stars). Also to be performed is a Dennis DeSantis quartet for four drumset-like setups originally written for Sō Percussion (Shifty), several duets (including the Safri Duo arrangement of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” from his opera, The Tale of Tsar Saltan) and an arrangement for percussion ensemble of the Frank Zappa classic instrumental, G Spot Tornado. Performing are Jarod Fedele, Brian Morones, Meg Cavanaugh, Dominique Cuello, Dominic DiCesare, Joey Goodman, Christine Tao, and Zac Erstad.

The date and time for “An Afternoon with Michael Giacchino, Film Composer” has changed from Tuesday, May 1, 2018 from 3:30-5:30 pm to Wednesday, May 2, 2018 from 7:30-9:30 pm. Giacchino will present a talk and lead a Q&A session in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UC Santa Barbara campus. The multi-award-winning composer is best known for his scores featured in Up, Inside Out, The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Zootopia, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and has won many awards including an Oscar®, a Golden Globe®, the BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics' Choice Award, and two GRAMMY® Awards.

Multi-award-winning composer Michael Giacchino will present a talk and lead a Q&A session on Tuesday, May 1, 2018 from 3:30-5:30 pm in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UC Santa Barbara campus. Giacchino is best known for his scores featured in Up, Inside Out, The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Zootopia, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and has won many awards including an Oscar®, a Golden Globe®, the BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics' Choice Award, and two GRAMMY® Awards.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present a special faculty chamber music recital on Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UCSB campus. The program will feature members of the string and keyboard faculty, including violinist Ambroise Aubrun, violist Jonathan Moerschel, cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, and pianist Robert Koenig. The evening will open with a pre-concert lecture given by musicologist and UCSB Associate Professor Dr. Derek Katz, followed by George Enescu’s Aubade in C Major for violin, viola, and cello, and Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major for violin, viola, cello, and piano, Op. 87. Admission is free (reservation required).

UC Santa Barbara will present the inaugural UCSB Arts Walk on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 from 4:30-8 p.m. at various locations across the UCSB campus. Hosted by the UCSB Library, Department of Music, Department of Theater and Dance, Department of Art, MultiCultural Center, College of Creative Studies, and Art, Design, & Architecture Museum, the event will give students, faculty, staff, and community members the opportunity to visit galleries and studios, watch preview performances and behind the scenes rehearsals, and participate in programming designed to highlight the artistic creativity and talent of the UCSB community, all free of charge.

The UCSB Department of Music will present its Winter 2018 Concert Series from Wednesday, March 7th to Friday, March 16th. The lineup will include performances by the Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM), Wind Ensemble, Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus, Middle East Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Music of India Ensemble, and Gospel Choir. Highlights will include the March 8th Wind Ensemble program featuring Percy Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy and an arrangement of Morten Lauridsen’s O Magnum Mysterium; the March 9th Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus program featuring the music of Latin American composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Alberto Ginastera; and the March 14th Jazz Ensemble program featuring works by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Maria Schneider.

Under the direction of Dr. Jon Nathan, the UCSB Percussion Ensemble will present "Old and New: Transcriptions and Compositions for Mallet Ensembles" on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall. The ensemble shows its love for mallet instrument music on this Valentine’s Day concert, with the first half featuring transcriptions for mallet ensemble including Debussy’s Golliwog’s Cakewalk, Shostakovich’s “Polka” from the ballet The Golden Age, and a suite of music from Bizet’s Carmen, as arranged by the legendary Clair Omar Musser, father of the modern marimba. The second half of the concert features recently composed music for mallet ensemble including Phillip Richardson’s Transmigration, David Skidmore’s Torched and Wrecked, and Nigel Westlake’s epic Omphalo Centric Lecture.

UCSB’s award-winning Opera Theatre program will present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved opera buffa, Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), on Thursday, February 8 and Saturday, February 10, 2018, with both performances taking place at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. Opera Santa Barbara’s General and Artistic Director, Kostis Protopapas, will conduct the production, with Isabel Bayrakdarian (UCSB Assistant Professor of Voice) serving as Stage Director and Benjamin Brecher (UCSB Professor of Voice) serving as Music Director and Producer. The opera will feature many of the program’s top graduate students, including Tyler Reece as Count Almaviva, Julie Davies as Countess Almaviva, Naomi Merer as Susanna, Byron Mayes as Figaro, and Kelly Newberry as Cherubino.

The UCSB Department of Music will present its Fall 2017 Concert Series from Wednesday, November 29th to Friday, December 8th. The lineup will include concerts by the Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM), Wind Ensemble, Middle East Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players, Jazz Combos, and the Gospel Choir. Highlights will include the Middle East Ensemble concert, which will feature Grammy Award-winning soprano and UCSB Assistant Professor of Voice, Isabel Bayrakdarian, as well as a presentation of the music of pianist Horace Silver by the UCSB Jazz Combos, and the Ensemble for Contemporary Music’s presentation of “Paris, Passports, and Passages,” a program featuring works by Albert Roussel, Henri Dutilleux, Ned Rorem, and more.

The UCSB Department of Music will present “Montage,” a department showcase, on Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at the beautiful Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Santa Barbara. Admission is free. The unique production will highlight classical, jazz, world, and contemporary music, with performances showcasing both students and faculty. The program will feature many of the department’s newest faculty members, including Isabel Bayrakdarian (soprano), Gabrielle Castriotta (oboe), Jonathan Moerschel (viola), Jennifer Kloetzel (cello), Bahram Osqueezadeh (santoor), and Grey Brothers conducting the UCSB Chamber Choir, as well as Robert Koenig (piano), Scott Marcus (nay), Sue Rudnicki (tabla), and Jill Felber conducting the UCSB Flute Choir.

Paul Berkowitz (Professor of Piano at UCSB) will present a recital featuring the last three piano sonatas of Franz Schubert on Sunday, October 29, 2017 at 3 p.m. at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West. Mr. Berkowitz’ performance accompanies the release of his two new Schubert CDs (Vols. 8 & 9, the final volumes of his Schubert Piano Works cycle) for Meridian Records earlier this fall.

The second annual UCSB Summer Music Festival will take place Thursday, August 17th through Saturday, August 19th on the UCSB campus. The festival will feature contemporary, world, classical, and folk music, with performances by LA-based Aperture Duo (violinist Adrianne Pope and violist Linnea Powell of the modern music collective, wild UP); drummer Ziyad Marcus and his trio; violist Jonathan Morgan; violinist and UCSB faculty member Andrew Tholl and his trio; the Celtic fusion band Dannsair; as well as a number of UCSB graduate students and alumni. The event will be free and open to the public, and will take advantage of UC Santa Barbara’s many performance venues, including the Multicultural Center Theater; the Art, Design & Architecture Museum; Karl Geiringer Hall; the Music Bowl; and the College of Creative Studies’ Old Little Theater.

UCSB’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music presents an unusual season finale on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, with the whimsical title: “The Concert that Went South.” Again destined to unfold at a friendly late-matinee hour (4 p.m.), the concert in UCSB’s Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall is free to university students with an I.D., and at only nominal cost to others.

The UCSB Wind Ensemble will present a program consisting entirely of works by USC Professor of Composition Frank Ticheli on Thursday, June 1, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UCSB campus. The composer himself will conduct much of the program, which will include Angels in the Architecture featuring graduate student Molly Clementz (mezzo soprano) as the “angel”; Dancing on Water highlighting the full ensemble; Blue Shades featuring a jazzy clarinet solo; Rest as a tribute to the victims, relatives, survivors, and witnesses of the 2014 Isla Vista Tragedy; and “Song for Aaron” (movement 2) from the Clarinet Concerto, performed by UCSB Wind Ensemble Director Paul Bambach. Ticheli’s Nitro will be conducted by graduate assistant Cynthia Vong.

Under the direction of Jon Nathan, the UCSB Percussion Ensemble will present “Ritual and Ceremony: Chamber Music for Percussion, Piano, and Dance” on Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UCSB campus. Special guests will include Christina McCarthy, choreographer (Vice Chair, UCSB Department of Theater and Dance); Leslie Cain and Sio Tepper, piano; Dylan Aguilera, trombone; dancers from UCSB’s Department of Theater and Dance; and Nick Diamantides, marimba and percussion. The program will feature works such as Paul Creston’s “Ceremonial,” Alan Hovaness’ “Mysterious Horse Before the Gates,” David Skidmore’s “Ritual Music,” Ivan Trevino’s “Catching Shadows,” Michael Laerello’s “Spine” for piano and three percussion, two works by Christopher Rouse, and the seminal concert percussion ensemble work, “Toccata,” written by the esteemed Carlos Chavez in 1942.

Kenneth Grant, Associate Professor of Clarinet at the Eastman School of Music, will conduct a masterclass with UCSB students on Friday, March 31, 2017 from 1-4 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall (Music Room 1250). Mr. Grant will teach a class on general techniques in addition to coaching three senior clarinet majors.

The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater will present works by Professor Clarence Barlow on Saturday, April 8, 2017, beginning with a screening of Barlow’s films at 7 p.m., followed by a concert at 8:30 p.m. The concert will feature Barlow’s latest set of works—a selection of instrumental pieces and several multitrack electronic compositions—almost all of which are Los Angeles premieres. UCSB graduate composition student Brandon J. Rolle will conduct UCSB’s Resident Ensemble, the Now Hear Ensemble, who will be joined by percussionist Matt Cook (Los Angeles Percussion Quartet); pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi (USC Thornton School of Music alumnus); and trumpeter David Nakazono, cellist Evan Murnane, and pianist Mark Gutierrez (UCSB students).

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music will present its Winter 2017 Concert Series from March 8-17, 2017 on the UCSB campus, with performances by the Ensemble for Contemporary Music, Jazz Combos, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus, Middle East Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players, Jazz Ensemble, Music of India Ensemble, and the Gospel Choir.

The Ensemble for Contemporary Music (ECM), the probing, investigative new music ensemble at UCSB, returns to action Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 4 p.m. with a look at gesture in music. “The Ubiquitous Gesture” presents nine wide-ranging selections with the accent on wordless, musical communication. Unfolding at 4 p.m., it is a matinee concert and one that is free to UCSB students with a valid ID. The venue is the comfortable Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall at the Department of Music.

The UCSB Department of Music will present featured faculty composer Clarence Barlow in a concert of his music from 1960-68 on Friday, February 24, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall. The program will include acoustic works by Barlow, including works for strings, winds, voice, piano, and a special multi-channel rendering of his Piano Concerto #2, as recorded by the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Admission is free.

UCSB’s Opera Theatre program will present excerpts from the three operas chosen as finalists for the 2016-2018 Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition on Friday, January 6, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West. The performance is part of the National Opera Association’s annual convention, which will be held for the first time in Santa Barbara from January 4-8, 2017 at the Fess Parker Hotel. Following UCSB Opera Theatre’s presentation of the opera excerpts, a panel of judges—including Kostis Protopapas, Henry Price, Robin Guarino, and Michael Ching—will select the winning opera, which will be performed in its entirety at the 2018 convention.

The UCSB Department of Music presents its Fall 2016 concert lineup, featuring the Ensemble for Contemporary Music, Chamber Choir and Women’s Chorus, University Wind Ensemble, Middle East Ensemble, University Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players, Jazz Combos, and Gospel Choir. Tickets may be purchased at the door, at the AS Ticket Office window (UCEN Room 1535, across from Corwin Pavilion), online at music.ucsb.edu/news/purchase-tickets, or by calling the AS Ticket Office at (805) 893-2064.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music welcomes Grammy and Juno Award-winning soprano, Dr. Isabel Bayrakdarian, as Assistant Professor of Voice. A “supremely elegant singer with lyric agility and dramatic warmth (Los Angeles Times),” Dr. Bayrakdarian has performed in opera houses and concert halls across the globe, to great critical acclaim. She is the winner of numerous prestigious competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition. Dr. Bayrakdarian will host a masterclass at Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West on Saturday, October 29, 2016 from 2-4 p.m. Four to five singers, ages 17-23, will be selected to perform in the class, which will be free and open to the public.

UC Santa Barbara welcomes two renowned artists to the Department of Music’s String Program faculty: cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, formerly of the Cypress Quartet, and Jonathan Moerschel, of the Calder Quartet. The artists are set to teach applied music lessons to undergraduate and graduate students, and coach the many diverse chamber music ensembles within the Department of Music, including the Young Artists String and Piano Quartets, and the University Chamber Orchestra.

Flutist Jill Felber will present a free concert of original contemporary pieces and classics from the chamber music repertoire on Sunday, October 16, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Santa Barbara. Ms. Felber will be joined by pianist Dianne Frazer and flutist Claudia Anderson, as well as UCSB faculty members Robert Koenig (piano) and Jennifer Kloetzel (cello). Ms. Kloetzel, a former member of the San Francisco-based Cypress Quartet, will join the UCSB String Program faculty this fall.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music presents its first-ever Summer Festival on Thursday, September 1, 2016 from 4-9 p.m. Presented in partnership with the UCSB College of Creative Studies and the UCSB Multicultural Center, the Festival will focus on diversity by combining world-class contemporary music ensembles with Afro-Cuban, contemporary, and indie artists. The artists will perform at venues all over the UCSB campus, with no admission fees.

The UCSB Middle East Ensemble will present their annual spring concert on Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UCSB campus. The ensemble will present a great variety of music and dance from throughout the Middle East, featuring an extended set of Armenian music and dance, including 3 songs by the renowned blind oud player, Udi Hrant (1901-1978) and another set by the minstrel Gusan (ashugh) Sheram (1857-1938). The ensemble will also present two Jewish Sabbath songs from Baghdad and Yemen, a classical Turkish instrumental composition, famous songs by the superstar singers Fairouz (Lebanese, b.1935) and Umm Kulthum (Egyptian, c.1904- 1975), and a Persian song composed and performed by Santa Barbara-based Javid-John Mosadeghi.

If you want to be a part of international Reger year 2016, there’s only one place in all of America to do it: at Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall with UCSB’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music (or ECM). There, on May 11th, this versatile ensemble offers a program well dosed in the music of Max Reger on the exact calendar day he died 100 years ago. In a special concert, dubbed, “We Miss You Max!” the young musicians of ECM get to express their newfound love for a musical renegade, while, on the very same day, Germany is all a-buzz with special concerts in his honor. But here in the U.S., ECM will have a rare “exclusive.”

The UCSB Percussion Ensemble will present their annual spring concert on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UCSB campus. The program spans the alphabet of composers, from UCSB College of Creative Studies composition student Jack Aron to the notable Los Angeles legend Frank Zappa, with stops in between on Michael Burritt, Christopher Rouse, Maurice Ravel, and Peter Schickele. The concert’s first half features a quartet for (mostly) non-pitched percussion: Michael Burritt’s The Doomsday Machine, inspired by an episode of the original Star Trek TV series. Rounding out the first half is a duet for marimbas on Ravel’s Alborado del gracioso, and Jack Aron’s Galaxies for full ensemble, plus guest pianist Leslie Cain, a student of Paul Berkowitz’s in the DMA performance program. The presentation of Jack Aron’s piece continues a tradition of developing and performing student compositions for percussion. Jack is a student of Leslie Hogan’s in the College of Creative Studies Music Composition program.

The UCSB Department of Music will present its third annual department showcase, Montage, on Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 5 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on the UCSB campus. This year, admission is free to all, and a complimentary reception with the artists will follow the show. The production will highlight all areas of the Department of Music, with performances by students and faculty, and special appearances by Grammy Award-winning soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and Santa Barbara Dance Theater’s Christina Sanchez.

The UCSB Department of Music welcomes trombonist/composer/arranger Ed Neumeister for a two-day campus visit on April 12th and 13th. Mr. Neumeister’s residency will include rehearsals, master classes, and discussions, and will conclude with a concert on Wednesday, April 13th at 7:30 p.m. in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall with the UCSB Jazz Ensemble, its related combos, and a trombone quartet and octet. To be performed are Mr. Neumeister’s arrangements and composition for large and small ensembles including “Locomotion” and the Grammynominated arrangement of “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,” as well as Thad Jones’ “Three and One” for jazz combo, “Passacaglia” for trombone quintet and rhythm section, and much more.

The award-winning UCSB Opera Theatre will present “Aspects of Love,” scenes from great operas, and the one-act opera, Signor Deluso, by Thomas Pasatieri, January 28-30 at 7:30 p.m., and January 31 at 3 p.m. in Karl Geiringer Hall on the UCSB campus. Emmy award-winning director David Grabarkewitz will direct, and UCSB Professor Benjamin Brecher will conduct students ranging from freshmen to doctoral candidates in scenes by Rossini, Bizet, Mozart, and Strauss. The program will conclude with the wildly amusing Signor Deluso.

The UC Santa Barbara Department of Music presents its Fall Concert Series lineup, beginning with the University Wind Ensemble on Thursday, November 19, 2015. Highlights for the November events will include the Middle East Ensemble, featuring Grammy Award-winning soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian; the West Coast premiere of Skronk by the University Wind Ensemble, to be introduced by composer John Frantzen; and the University Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. The December events open with the Ensemble for Contemporary Music’s program, “Strings Attached”—a spotlight of composers from the Netherlands, USA, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Argentina. The Jazz Combos will continue in their tradition of delivering noteworthy interpretations of jazz standards, with a focus on the music of jazz innovators Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus for their fall concert on December 2nd. The Gospel Choir, directed by the charismatic Victor Bell, will present a concert of praise and traditional gospel music on December 4th, and the Women’s Chorus will present a free recital of sacred and secular works on December 6th.